


Out of Place

by likehandlingroses



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-02-21
Packaged: 2019-11-02 00:52:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17877950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likehandlingroses/pseuds/likehandlingroses
Summary: Bill has a vision: all of his siblings, together, enjoying each other's company. Percy, Fred, and George are determined to make it difficult.





	Out of Place

**December, 1982**

“It’ll be fun,” Bill insisted, trying to ignore Charlie’s distinct lack of enthusiasm. So far, pitching the idea of having a sleepover with their younger siblings (some of them, anyway: Mum had put her foot down on letting Ron or Ginny join in) hadn’t gone over well. 

Bill should have known. Charlie was his best friend in the whole world, which was a lucky thing to find in a brother, but he liked his space. And, Bill had to admit, fitting in three more people was going to make space a hard-won commodity. 

“The twins and Percy aren’t fun—they’re disasters,” Charlie said. “You’ve been at school too long, you forget how little kids are.” 

Bill rolled his eyes. “Oh, because you’re so big.”

Charlie lurched forward off of his bed, fists clenched. “Bigger than you!” 

He wasn’t wrong, Bill conceded. Oh, Bill still had a few inches on him heightwise...probably always would. But Charlie already had broader shoulders—and the muscle to warrant them. 

“Let’s try it, just once?” Bill said. “And if it doesn’t go well...you can hit me.”

“I don’t  _ want  _ to hit you,” Charlie whined, plopping back down on the bed. “I want to sleep!”

Thankfully, Charlie’s sporting nature won out, as he realized no one else was opposed to the idea of a sleepover (though Mum’s eyes narrowed every time Bill brought it up). And so, at seven thirty, Fred, George, and Percy crowded into the bedroom Bill had rearranged to fit them—pillows and blankets and a few old sleeping bags littering the floor. 

“Hold it!” Bill said, as Fred and George surveyed this new arena, eyes glimmering with mischief. “Now, there’s some rules you have to follow or you have to leave, okay? First of all, Percy: you can’t bring Scabbers. He’ll get squished.” 

Percy, who was clutching the rat tightly in his hands, looked aghast. 

“But I have to! He gets scared of the dark.”

“No he doesn’t, Perce,” Bill sighed. “ _ You _ get scared of the dark.”

“I do not!” Percy shouted. “I do not, Bill! I do—”

“All right, keep your shirt on!” Bill hissed, grabbing his arm. Mum had one rule: keep it quiet. “You don’t get scared of the dark, got it.”

“I don’t,” Percy continued, though thankfully he was speaking a regular volume again. “When I was five I did, but now I  _ don’t _ .” 

“Course not,” Bill said. “I just forgot. Now, will you let Scabbers stay on his own? Just for tonight? I’ll bet he won’t be scared because he knows our house so well by now.”

Percy looked down at Scabbers, contemplating the merits of this new suggestion. 

“That  _ is  _ true…”

And so Scabbers was dutifully returned to Percy’s bedroom. Bill, quite proud of himself for resolving such a hiccup without Mum or Dad’s help, felt sure the rest of the evening would go smoothly. For a little while, it did. The first few games went off without a hitch, and as the twins began to yawn, Bill was ready to count the evening a success. 

“Just one more thing, and then we’ll go to bed, okay? It’s a card game, I learned it in school...only some of these cards have words on them, so the twins’ll have to team with me and Charlie. So Fred, come sit with me, and then George go over with Charlie.”

The twins, sedated by an unusual amount of attention and plenty of pillows to jump on, clambered to their designated locations. But Percy was doing some math in his head, and no sooner had Bill begun to pass cards around than Percy spoke up, his brow knit. 

“Why do I have to be by myself?” 

“Because you can read; you don’t need any help,” Bill explained, still passing cards around the circle. 

“But I can help someone!” Percy insisted. “I’m a big brother, too!”

“I know you are, but there’s only the five of us, so—”

“—I wanna be with Perce!” Fred shouted, looking up from the pile of cards he was busy folding in half. Bill tried to grab the one he was holding, but Fred snatched it out of his reach. 

“No, me!” George said, standing up and crushing the pile of cards in front of him. 

“No, Georgie, listen!” Fred said, standing up and walking towards George with all the seriousness in the world. “It’s my turn, okay? My turn and then you.”

He looked over at Percy. “Right, Perce? I go first because Fred is before George in the ABCs.” 

“That’s right,” George conceded. He looked down at Charlie, who was busy trying to pry the cards out from under George’s feet. “Charlie, Fred has to go over there first, ‘kay?”

“Look: no one is playing with Percy right now,” Bill said, desperate to get to the room back under his control. “He’s going to have a hard enough time following the rules on his own.”

Percy’s lower lip began to tremble. 

“I don’t  _ want  _ to play anymore!” he declared, tossing his own cards away and making a break for the door. 

“Fine, be a baby!” Bill shouted, feeling stupid even as he said it. Arguing with a six year old...

“I’m  _ not  _ a baby!” Percy said, his face beet red. “You’re being...I can’t say!”

Bill rolled his eyes. “I’m being what?”

“Ex-trem-ely mean and a bully!” Percy said, throwing the words into the room as though they were a particularly nasty hex. “And I don’t  _ care _ if you tell Mummy!” 

“I told you,” Charlie murmured as Percy stormed from the room. 

* * *

**August, 1985**

“Where do you want to sleep, Ginny?” 

Every brother fell silent as their baby sister eyed the room with precision. If they weren’t careful, their first sleepover with their sister might be their last. Mum was convinced they’d be too loud, too eager to roughhouse, and everyone was on their best behavior, determined to prove her wrong

There was a certain pageantry any time Ginny entered the equation—everyone in the family wanted to be her favorite, and no one could ever agree who was winning. 

“I will sleep...right here,” she declared, indicating a spot next to Ron. “That’s all right?”

She looked up at Bill expectantly. 

“That’s fine, Ginny,” Bill said, and Ginny beamed.

Bill looked over at Fred, George, and Percy, who were all huddled together near the doorway. “But one of you lot needs to move over.”

“Why?” Fred protested. 

“Because I’m not going to wake up in the middle of night to hear one of you crying that someone kicked you, that’s why.”

The three of them exchanged affronted looks. 

“We’ve never done that!” George said.

“Yeah, last time Percy just grabbed my face because he was dreaming about Quidditch,” Fred said. “And then we woke up and he said, ‘I thought it was too big to be a Quaffle!’ And then Mum came in and shouted because we wouldn’t shut it.”

Bill sighed. “I remember what happened...you want it to happen again?”

“Well, I  _ did _ wake up before I could win, so let’s give it another go,” Percy said, and the three of them burst into laughter. 

Bill shrugged. There wasn’t much to be done, when the twins and Percy got started with something. Nothing for it but to let them learn the hard way. 

Sure enough, once everyone had gone to sleep, Bill was awoken by a cry of pain. 

“Ow!” Fred exclaimed. “Ron, will you stop it?”

  
“I can’t find the door!” Ron said, panic in his voice. 

“Well it’s not on my stomach, you—”

“Ron, come over here…” Percy’s voice carried through the darkness. 

“Percy!” Fred whined. “He’s stepping on—”

“—will you be quiet?” Percy interrupted. “It’s not that bad, he’s just confused.”

“I can’t find the door, Percy,” Ron whispered, having made it over to where Percy was sleeping. 

“I know…” Bill could hear Percy standing up. “Here, let’s just be really careful, okay?”

“Okay.”

“If he steps on me again—” Fred warned.

“—he’s not going step on you,” Percy said. “You’re being a baby.” 

Bill shut his eyes tighter as though that would make anyone believe he was more heavily asleep. It was difficult enough when Percy and the twins were thick as thieves. It was downright unbearable when they fought. 

“Am not!” Fred said. 

“What’s it called when you start crying about a little kid tripping over your big feet in the dark?”

“It’s called he stepped on my _ stomach _ and it hurt!”

“Percy!” Ron said, still in a carrying whisper. “I have to use the—"

“—I know, we’re going,” Percy said. “Fred’s just being stupid, that’s all.” 

When Ron and Percy returned a few minutes later, a well aimed kick from Fred sent Percy sprawling right on top of Ginny, who woke up with a scream. 

In what seemed like an instant, the entire room was thrown into chaos, broken up by a furious Mum, who dragged everyone but Bill and Charlie out of the room. 

“Never again,” Bill heard her hissing to herself. “Never again.”

 

* * *

**July, 1993**

“Are we sure this isn’t going to make everything absolutely worse for Ginny?’ Charlie asked as he and Bill strode down the hall towards the room Percy and the twins were staying in.

“No, I’m not sure. But we only had this trip so everyone could be together, so we might as well try.”

However, as they drew closer to the door, the sound of a roaring argument met their ears. 

“Idiots…” Bill murmured as Charlie closed his eyes in frustration. He was sure he and Charlie hadn’t been such terrors during their teenage years. 

The trouble—according to Ron—had started when Percy had received his Head Boy badge...and neither Fred nor George had been made prefect. Bill was well past caring whose fault it was for their conflicts; whoever had started it, the entire affair had shaped into a classic Percy vs. the twins spectacle. 

Today’s vitriol had culminated in a nasty incident where Percy had cut George down to size at breakfast for something stupid; two hours later, Fred and George were caught trying to lock him in a pyramid. The three of them had been seething ever since. 

Bill knocked sharply on the door, but the shouting didn’t abate in the slightest. 

“What the hell is going on in there?” he called out. “Fred? Perce? Look, will someone open the door, please?”

The door swung open to reveal Percy, absolutely fuming. 

“I’m not staying in this room,” he said. “The fact that I was ever asked to board with them in the first place—”

“—oh, like we’re having the time of our lives here with you,” Fred shouted at him. 

“—he’s just upset that he can’t wank to his girlfriend’s picture now that we’re here,” George said, and Fred snickered. Bill thought he heard some rather vulgar imitations coming from their end of the room, and Percy spun around, advancing on them. Reluctantly, Bill and Charlie entered the room behind him. 

“I cannot fathom how anyone, anywhere, has ever stood to be around you for more than five minutes!” Percy bellowed. 

“Says you!” Fred walked towards him, unabashed, until they were almost toe to toe. “George, do you think our Perfect Brother took out the photographer’s eye with that badge sending the entire sun into his face?”

“As if his head wasn’t already big enough,” said George. 

“I’m sorry, how old is everyone in this room?” Charlie said. Percy turned on his heel, eyes wide and cheeks flushed. Even the twins looked down at the floor in embarrassment. “Right. That’s what I thought.”

“Ginny wants to have a game night,” Bill said. “Mum thinks it’s a bad idea given...what happened today. But I told her there was no way two fifteen year olds and a Head Boy who is almost of age could still be fighting over something so stupid.” 

The twins and Percy exchanged looks.

“Well, if Ginny wants...of course, we’d be happy to,” Percy stammered. Fred nodded, and George gave a shrug. 

“Great,” Bill said. “So we’ll see you in our room, ten minutes.” 

And while the twins and Percy kept a polite distance the whole night, the ceasefire between them was faithfully maintained.

* * *

**August, 1998**

Bill hadn’t dug through the old game shelf in years. He’d always meant to come back for some of them, though a part of him believed these games would always belong here, in this house. Waiting, perhaps, for his own children to find them. 

Ginny hadn’t wanted a fuss, hadn’t wanted a party for her seventeenth. Just everyone home and together. 

Even this excursion upstairs had been only a natural movement, a vague curiosity about what was still leftover from when they’d all been children. 

“Do you remember Dragon’s Hoard?”  Bill said, pulling out the box. “Blimey, we used to play this all the time…”

“I never played,” Ginny said. Ron shook his head. 

“Me neither.”

“What? You had to have played, it was our favorite,” Charlie said, taking the box from Bill and admiring it.

“Nope, never did,” Ron said. 

“That ends today,” Bill said, pulling the lid off of the box. “Look, here...you got to pick a dragon, and then you had to collect as many items as you could, so you had the biggest pile of treasure at the end.”

“This explains everything about the both of you, you realize that?” George quipped. 

Bill smiled; George’s jokes had grown few and far between, lately. But today had been a good one, so far. He’d shown up early and hadn’t yet made an excuse to leave. If there were more days like this, if they could get him out of his lonely apartment more often, Bill was sure he’d improve.

“I forgot…” Bill’s face fell. “There’s only five dragons...” 

“Guess that answers why they never played it,” Charlie said, reaching for the lid. But Bill wasn’t ready to retire the game just yet. 

“Teams, then?” he suggested, and Charlie shook his head. 

“How are we going to do teams in a game like this?” 

“So what I hear is you’re forfeiting…” Bill teased. As he suspected, the challenge worked.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Charlie grinned. “Ron, get over here.” 

He grabbed an extremely confused Ron by the arm, clapping him on the back. “You’ve all already lost. This is the dream team, right here.” 

“All right...Ginny picks next,” Bill said, laughing 

But then he caught Ginny’s eye and realized she was trying to decide which of her brothers to choose in order to make the rest of the night as painless as possible. The last few months had been miserable for all of them, but there was a particular brutality of circumstances permeating both Percy and George’s grief. They both seemed untethered, aimless, unreachable. George was thinner and paler, than Bill had ever seen him. Percy’s voice was hoarse when he spoke—almost permanently hushed—and his hands shook. 

As ashamed as the rest of them were to admit it, their grief made George and Percy difficult to face. 

“Well, don’t all jump at once,” George said, with just enough bite in his voice to make it clear he’d read the panic in the room. “Percy, you ever play this game?”

“I don’t remember,” Percy said, rather blankly. “I suppose I might have.”

“Good enough for me,” George said. “Anyway, we’ll save everyone the trouble of deciding who they feel sorriest for.” 

Just like that, they were a team, and the six of them were sprawled on the floor, playing at being children again. 

As expected, Charlie and Ron made a strong start. Charlie knew the game, but Ron knew how to win. Ginny and Bill were making a strong challenge, though, mostly because they didn’t flinch at risks. 

Percy and George seemed to be going through the motions, though every once in a while Bill thought he saw a spark of strategy flit across Percy’s eye. He let George take the lead, however, only giving input when asked. 

“It’s our turn? All right, so—” George made to set something down, but caught Percy’s eye. “No? That’s not right?”

Percy gave an odd jerking motion with his head, as if to convey some message to his partner. George studied him, bemused. 

“What, are we going the stealth route now?” he said, a smiling crossing his lips. “Excellent, always good to to try something outside your comfort zone. All right, go ahead with your psychic connections.”

He stared at Percy, comically wide-eyed, and Percy broke eye contact with a snort of laughter.

“Perce!” George straightened his back, feigning indignation. “This is serious. We're falling behind on rubies.” 

Percy, whose face was flushed with a sudden rush of amusement, gestured at the board. 

“Just put it there,” he said. 

“—oh, now he speaks…” George said, still grinning. “Say, that’s actually a good idea. Watch it, Charlie. We’re going to take it all.” 

They didn’t, of course; neither George nor Percy had ever been much good at such games. But they _played_ , after that moment. They played with a liveliness they’d forgotten they had in themselves, with a kinship they’d forgotten they could forge with each other.

And if you asked Bill, that was all that mattered.

 


End file.
